Distraction
by mew-tsubaki
Summary: Ennoshita needs a haircut, and Tanaka thinks he's being helpful.
**Distraction**

A Haikyuu! oneshot

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The _Haikyuu!_ characters belong to Furudate Haruichi-sensei, not to me. Been a while since I wrote some Ennotana ridiculousness. -w- Read, review, and enjoy!

\- ^-^3

"Hey, Ennoshita…that's, like, the umpteenth time you've done that today."

Ennoshita, Tanaka, and Narita turned Kinoshita's way in the clubroom. "Done what?" Ennoshita asked.

Kinoshita gestured from his spot on the floor with a little twirl of his finger at his forehead after slipping into his club jacket. "Blow your hair out of your eyes. It's gotten kinda long, hasn't it?"

Tanaka and Narita turned back to Ennoshita at the shelves, who now fiddled with his fringe. "Kinoshita has a point," Tanaka commented, eying the brunet. "It's noticeable mostly in the front, but the sides and the back are a bit long, too." He pulled his t-shirt on the rest of the way and then reached for the back of Ennoshita's head, tugging on the long strands.

Ennoshita's reaction was hilarious: he turned pink and flustered before settling them all with an annoyed glare as the other three laughed. He swatted Tanaka's hand away and zipped his jacket all the way up to his chin, pulling the collar snug around his neck. "My parents have been busy lately," the brunet huffed, closing his bag after getting his socks out and shoving it to the side on the middle shelf. "Usually one of them trims it, but neither have had the chance lately."

"I could ask Sis to cut it," Tanaka offered, unceremoniously toeing aside his backpack on the floor near Nishinoya's.

Ennoshita's annoyance with him ebbed. "Are you sure? I wouldn't want to…"

"It's no trouble," the shaven-haired ace told him, dismissing Ennoshita's hesitance with a wave of his hand. He stooped to grab his cellphone from his backpack and texted Saeko. "There. I'm sure she'll say yes, and you can just come by after practice."

"Thanks." Ennoshita smiled, looking rather relieved, and Tanaka had to remind himself as he stood up that they still had club activities to get through. It wasn't the time to fall victim, as Nishinoya would say, to one of Ennoshita's smiles.

They got through practice fine as usual, though it didn't help Tanaka any when Nishinoya and Hinata loudly pointed out how Ennoshita needed a haircut, worse still when Yachi commented that Ennoshita looked nice with his hair on the longer side. Tanaka already felt a bit distracted today by the topic, though he wasn't exactly sure why. Maybe it was just because it was something a little out of the ordinary? Yeah, that had to be it.

The five second years walked home partway together afterwards, stopping for Nishinoya to grab a GariGari-Kun, and Tanaka forgot for a moment about their plans until Kinoshita and Narita peeled off and even Nishinoya headed for his own house, leaving Ennoshita to walk home with Tanaka. "You sure it's still okay?" Ennoshita prompted, reminding Tanaka about the earlier offer.

"Hmm? What? Oh, yeah, yeah…" Tanaka checked his messages just in case. "Sis is fine with it," he confirmed aloud after he spied the thumbs' up Saeko had sent him between her evening classes. He glanced at Ennoshita, only to find Ennoshita peeking back at him. Despite the funny flip his stomach did, Tanaka grinned, making Ennoshita the first one to look away.

"Will she be home soon?" he asked Tanaka.

"In a bit. She's got one more class, but then she'll be home for dinner."

"I guess that gives us time to get our homework done."

"Aw, Ennoshita… Don't be such a drag…"

Ennoshita raised one eyebrow disapprovingly but then rolled his eyes. He didn't have it in him to keep after Tanaka tonight, the shaven-haired boy surmised.

At the Tanaka family's house, Tanaka's mother was delighted to see Ennoshita again, and she chided her son for not letting her know they'd be having company. "And after all Chikara-kun did for you, helping you study so you didn't miss the training camp!" she nagged Tanaka as Tanaka shoved Ennoshita down the hall towards his room.

The exchange made Ennoshita laugh, even as he shrugged his bag off and sat down in Tanaka's room. "Nice to know she has such a high opinion of me," he teased as Tanaka scrunched his nose up at him.

"Yeah, yeah… She completely forgets that _I'm_ the one who took the tests and passed!"

"That's true." Ennoshita opened his book bag and removed his English textbook, flipping through it until he arrived at his bookmarked page. He paused when he felt Tanaka's eyes on him, and he looked up. "You're really not going to do any homework?"

"You really _are_? We just got home, Ennoshita. Play a game. Read some manga. Watch a movie," he added with a smirk, figuring that was the only real temptation he'd listed.

"I'm good," Ennoshita deadpanned.

Now it was Tanaka's turn to roll his eyes. "Spoilsport."

The smarty-pants chuckled at that.

Tanaka internally sighed, resigned to the fact that Ennoshita was determined to be anything but fun tonight. He went and changed into denim shorts and a loose t-shirt, asked his mother what was for supper, got chased out of the kitchen when he ate the ingredients instead of helped prepare them, and returned to his room, where Ennoshita was quietly lost in the chapter he was reading. So as not to disturb him, Tanaka grabbed some of his manga from his bookshelf and sat at the low table set in the middle of his room, across from Ennoshita, and tried getting absorbed in the written word, too. And yet…every couple of minutes, he found his attention wander, and his eyes kept sidling up over the top of the tankobon to land on Ennoshita's face. Well, the top of his head, since Ennoshita was hunched over his own book.

"…can you not do that?"

Tanaka blinked, spooked by the sudden bout of sound. "Hmm?"

Ennoshita didn't look up as he continued to address his friend. "Staring. You've been doing that a lot recently."

"Have I?" Tanaka put his manga down and gave it some thought, though his eyes didn't leave Ennoshita. He hadn't really noticed he'd been staring.

"You have. Since last week or so." Ennoshita paused before he looked up sheepishly. "It's weird, isn't it? My hair. I really need to keep it neater, and shorter…"

"No, it's…" Tanaka pursed his lips. Was there a better way to phrase it? Frankly, Tanaka thought Ennoshita looked…prettier with his hair on the longer side. Ennoshita was already a good-looking guy, Tanaka knew; the longer hair just made him more distracting. But Tanaka hadn't been staring all _that_ much, had he? The words "It looks nice this way" were on Tanaka's lips, but he didn't release them.

Instead, he pushed their books gently aside and leaned across the table, tousling Ennoshita's hair before his brain caught up with what his body was doing. Ennoshita jolted at the gesture and snapped his head up fully, finding the side of his face caught by Tanaka's touch by accident as a result. Whereas he'd turned pink earlier today, he now turned neon red like Hinata did whenever the poor kid did anything even remotely embarrassing.

Tanaka bit back a bemused laugh, feeling his cheeks heat up, too, even as Ennoshita's pseudo-glare conveyed to him that Ennoshita was trying to grow mad at him for the motion—and failing miserably to do so.

Ennoshita opened his mouth, no doubt to scold Tanaka for being too carefree. But then—

" _Ryuu~_!"

Ennoshita blinked, just as surprised as Tanaka to hear Saeko's voice. "Your sister's home," the brunet pointed out dumbly.

Tanaka withdrew his hand, inwardly grumbling that the moment was over. "Yeah, I heard," he mumbled. He scratched the back of his head and got up just as Saeko threw open the door to his room.

"Ryuu! Where's Chikara?" The blond peeked around her brother and waved cheerily to Ennoshita. "Hi, Chikara!" She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "Wanna follow me into the kitchen? Mom said I could seat you at the table while it's free."

"Ah, sure," Ennoshita said, and he hurried to his feet, following Saeko out of the room, careful not to bump into Tanaka…likely because of what had just transpired before Saeko's arrival.

Tanaka pretended to ignore Ennoshita's abrupt caution around him and trailed behind them, pulling up a chair while Saeko prepped Ennoshita, grabbing a bath towel to drape over his shoulders and dampening the ends to be cut.

"You don't have to watch," Ennoshita stated dryly while Saeko whistled and did her thing.

Tanaka grinned, feeling a bit more at ease with Ennoshita this way, since he hadn't known how to react to the bashful Ennoshita from moments ago. "I know I don't _have_ to, but you're my guest."

Ennoshita quietly sighed and turned his attention to Saeko. "Thank you for doing this, Saeko-san."

"It's no problem, Chikara," she told him. She combed his hair the way she needed it and began trimming. "I kinda like doing this, anyway. Who else do you think keeps Yuu looking so cool, or Ryuu so handsome?"

Tanaka laughed at his sister's praises, ducking his head briefly and rubbing the back of his neck after Ennoshita agreed that she did a good job with them. Then the kitchen grew pleasantly quiet save for the slippery sound of the shears coming together to clip Ennoshita's hair and the occasional quiet whistle from Saeko.

It only took a few minutes—fewer than ten, Tanaka estimated—but it felt a little longer than that. Perhaps, the second-year ace mused, it felt longer since he was sad to see the pretty sight of a longer-haired Ennoshita go…

And yet his pulse quickened when Saeko announced she was done and she removed the towel. Ennoshita shook his head and brushed his fingers through his locks, looking more like himself, even smiling casually at his friend…and Tanaka was caught off-guard.

"Good as new, yeah?" Ennoshita asked him, his tone revealing he was in a better mood.

Tanaka didn't trust his mouth, so he nodded.

"Chikara, you staying for dinner?" Saeko asked, ever a helpful interruption.

"Ah, sorry, I can't," he replied as he got up from the table. "I told my mom I'd be home in time to heat up leftovers for her, Dad, and me. Another time, maybe."

Saeko beamed at that. "Sounds good! Don't feel as though you only have to come over when Ryuu needs a firm hand or you need your hair cut, 'kay?"

"Hey, hey, _hey_!" Tanaka griped. Still, they both laughed at him.

Tanaka and Ennoshita returned to Tanaka's room so Ennoshita could collect his things, and then Tanaka told his sister and mother he'd be back shortly. "You really don't have to walk me home, though," Ennoshita said once they got outside.

Tanaka shrugged. "It's fine. Technically, I invited you over, so it only makes sense."

Ennoshita shook his head. "There's a lot that makes sense only to you, Tanaka…"

Honestly, the shaven-haired teen took it as a compliment.

They walked quietly for the first couple of minutes, but eventually Ennoshita ended the silence. "Guess I'm good now, right?"

"Hmm?"

The brunet gestured to his fringe. "It was distracting, wasn't it? That was why you'd been staring since last week.

Tanaka gave it some thought…and he stared again at his friend, until Ennoshita began fidgeting under his gaze. Hmm. Longer hair or not, Ennoshita was just plain pretty. But Tanaka had had the chance to be embarrassed by this realization earlier. Now he wanted to see just how crazy the next thought in his head was, and he grabbed Ennoshita by the hand as they resumed walking.

Ennoshita's composure jumped off a cliff. He spluttered something—Tanaka's name, probably, along with a few words that might've been exclamations or expletives—but he didn't try to pull his hand away from Tanaka's. In fact, his palm was warm and sweaty as he squeezed tight.

Tanaka laughed. "Y'know," he said simply, "don't let your hair grow out. _Ever._ "

"Wha…?" Apparently Ennoshita had found his voice. "What's gotten into you?" He hid his face partly with his free hand and tried his best to glare at Tanaka over his arm, but the effect was lost the redder he got.

Tanaka laughed again and pulled him closer, knowing full well why he'd made such a demand of Ennoshita. It'd taken him this long to realize how cute Ennoshita was—he didn't need or want the competition that was sure to crop up if others caught on to just how distracting Ennoshita could be, trimmed hair or no.

\- ^-^3

 **Forgive me… I'm muddling through allergies and really just needed some Ennotana fluff in my life… ;w; This dumb thing is based on an old idea that I couldn't decide if it should be a fic or a comic—in the end, I went with fic, but I still might draw a comic someday. Ah, well. Though, on a second read-through, I like this more than I thought I did… I hope you enjoyed it, too! :3**

 **Thanks for reading, and please review! Check out my other [** _ **HQ!**_ **] fics, too, if you liked this!**

 **-mew-tsubaki :]**


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